First fruit – Obama’s ‘Arab Spring’ Speech

Palestinians condemn latest Israel settlement plan
RAMALLAH, West Bank | Fri May 20, 2011 5:36am EDT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian officials Friday condemned an Israeli plan to build 1,550 housing units on annexed land around Jerusalem, authorized the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for talks in Washington.

An Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman said a planning committee had approved two building projects in Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa. These urban settlements were built on land that Israel annexed after a 1967 war, in a move not recognized internationally, and that it sees as Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The spokeswoman did not say when construction was expected to start.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Israeli move further hampered U.S. efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which collapsed last year shortly after they began because of settlement building. …more